January 5

Birthdays:

1978 ~ January Jones, American actress best known for her role as Betty Drapper on MadMen.

1975 ~ Bradley Cooper, American actor.

1975 ~ Warrick Dunn, American football player from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  His mother, Betty Smothers was a police officer.  While working as an off-duty police officer, she was killed by armed robbers on January 7, 1993.

1953 ~ George Tenet, 18^th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He served under United States Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, from December 1996 until July 2004.

1948 ~ Ted Lange (né Theodore William Lange), American actor best known for his role as the bartender, Isaac, on The Love Boat.

1946 ~ Diane Keaton, American actress.

1942 ~ Charlie Rose, American journalist and talk show host who, in late 2017, was fired from all his jobs for charges of sexual harassment.

1932 ~ Raisa Gorbachova (d. Sept. 20, 1999), wife of Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.  She died of leukemia at age 67.

1932 ~ Umberto Eco (d. Feb. 19, 2016), Italian philosopher and scholar who became a blockbuster novelist with his novel, The Name of the Rose.  He died at age 84.

1931 ~ Alvin Ailey (d. Dec. 1, 1989), African-American dancer and choreographer.  He died at age 58.

1931 ~ Aaron Cohen (d. Feb. 25, 2010), American engineer who ran Mission Control.  He was the Acting Deputy Administrator for NASA from February 1992 until November 1992.  He died at age 79.

1931 ~ Robert Duvall, American actor.

1929 ~ Tabby Thomas (né Ernest Joseph Thomas, d. Jan. 1, 2014), American blues musician.  He was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he ran and operated Tabby’s Blues Box.  He died 4 days before his 85^th birthday.

1928 ~ Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (b. Apr. 4, 1979) 4^th President of Pakistan.  He was executed at age 51 following a coup.

1928 ~ Walter Mondale, American politician and 42^nd Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Jimmy Carter.

1923 ~ Sam Phillips (né Samuel Cornelius Phillips, d. July 30, 2003), American record producer and founder of Sun Records.  He died at age 80.

1921 ~ John H. Reed (d. Oct. 31, 2012), 67^th Governor of Maine.  He served as Governor from December 1959 until January 1967.  Before turning to politics, he was a potato farmer in Aroostook County.  He died at age 91.

1917 ~ Jane Wyman (née Sarah Jane Mayfield, d. Sept. 10, 2007), American actress and first wife of President Ronald Reagan.  She died at age 90.

1914 ~ George Reeves, (né George Keefer Brewer, d. June 16, 1959), American actor best known for his role as Superman in the 1950s television show of the same name.  He died under mysterious circumstances that have been described as both a suicide and murder.  He was 45 at the time of his death.

1909 ~ Stephen Cole Kleene (d. Jan. 25, 1994), American mathematician.  He died 20 days after his 85^th birthday.

1904 ~ Jeane Dixon (née Lydia Emma Pinckert, d. Jan. 25, 1997), American astrologer.  She advised Nancy Reagan.  She died of cardiac arrest 20 days after her 93^rd birthday.

1886 ~ Markus Reiner (d. Apr. 25, 1976), Austrian-born Israeli civil engineer.  He died at age 90.

1882 ~ Dorothy Levitt (née Elizabeth Levi, d. May 17, 1922), British journalist and first woman race car driver.  She died at age 40.

1874 ~ Joseph Erlanger (d. Dec. 5, 1965), American physiologist and recipient of the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died a month before his 92^nd birthday.

1865 ~ Julio Garavito Armero (d. Mar. 11, 1920), Colombian mathematician, astronomer, and engineer.  He died at age 55.

1855 ~ King Camp Gillette (d. July 9, 1932), American inventor credited with creating the safety razor.  He was also the founder of the Gillette Company.  He died at age 77.

1846 ~ Rudolf Christoph Eucken (d. Sept. 15, 1926), German writer and philosopher and recipient of the 1908 Nobel Prize for Literature.  He died at age 80.

1838 ~ Camille Jordan (d. Jan. 22, 1922), French mathematician.  He died less than 3 weeks after his 84^th birthday.

1779 ~ Zebulon Pike (d. Apr. 27, 1813), American army officer, frontiersman and explorer.  Pikes Peak in Colorado is named for him.  He was killed in action age 34 in the Battle of York during the War of 1912.

1779 ~ Stephen Decatur (d. Mar. 22, 1820), American naval officer during the American Revolutionary War.  He is known for his heroism during the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812.  He was killed in a duel at age 41.

1762 ~ Constanze Mozart (née Maria Constanze Cäcilia Josepha Johanna Aloysia Weber Mozart,d. Mar. 6, 1842), German wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  She died at age 80.

1592 ~ Shah Jahan (d. Jan. 22, 1666), Mughal emperor.  He is best known for having the Taj Mahal built as a burial tomb for his wife.  He died 17 days after his 74^th birthday.

Events that Changed the World:

1972 ~ President Richard M. Nixon (1913 ~ 1994) ordered the development of the Space Shuttle Program.

1970 ~ A 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Tonghai County in China.  Over 10,000 people were killed and over 25,000s were injured.

1953 ~ Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot, was first performed in Paris.

1949 ~ United States President Harry S. Truman (1884 ~ 1972) announced his Fair Deal program.

1940 ~ The FM radio was first demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission.

1933 ~ Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco with Marin County, began.

1925 ~ Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876 ~ 1977) became the first woman governor of a state when she took the office in Wyoming.  She was Governor from 1925 to 1927.

1919 ~ The German Workers’ Party, the precursor to the Nazi Party, was founded.

1914 ~ Henry Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, announced a minimum wage scale of $5 per day for all employees and an 8-hour work day.

1909 ~ Columbia recognized Panama as an independent country.

1895 ~ French army officer Alfred Dreyfus (1859 ~ 1935) was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life in prison on Devil’s Island, for no other reason than being a Jew.  He was later acquitted.

1882 ~ Charles J. Guiteau (1841 ~ 1882) was convicted of the assassination of President James Garfield (1831 ~ 1881).  He was sentenced to death by hanging.

1826 ~ The General Assembly of Maryland granted Jews the right to vote or to hold public office in the State.

1781 ~ During the American Revolutionary War, British naval forces, led by Benedict Arnold (1741 ~ 1801), burned Richmond, Virginia.

Good-Byes:

2010 ~ Murray Saltzman (b. Nov. 26, 1929), Reform Jewish rabbi and civil rights leader.  He died at age 80 of pancreatic cancer.

2009 ~ Griffin Bell (b. Oct. 31, 1918), 72^nd Attorney General.  He served under President Jimmy Carter.  He served as Attorney General from January 1977 until August 1979.  He was also a Judge of the United States Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit from February 1962 until March 1976.  He died at age 90.

2004 ~ Norman Heatley (b. Jan. 10, 1911), British biologist and chemist who co-developed penicillin.  He died 5 days before his 93^rd birthday.

2003 ~ Jean Kerr (b. July 10, 1922), American author.  She is best known for her book, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.  She died at age 80.

1998 ~ Sonny Bono (né Salvatore Phillip Bono, b. Feb. 16, 1935), American singer and half of the duo Sonny and Cher.  In his later life, he became a politician.  He was killed in a freak skiing accident.  He was 62 years old.

1994 ~ Tip P’Neill (né Thomas Philip O’Neill, b. Dec. 9, 1912), American politician from Massachusetts and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.  He was from Massachusetts.  He died 27 days after his 81^st birthday.

1988 ~ Pete Maravich (né Peter Press Maravich, b. June 22, 1947), American basketball player, who in college played for Louisiana State University.  He was known as Pistol Pete.  He died at age 40 of heart failure during a pick-up game of basketball.  He is buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  The basketball arena at LSU is named in his honor.

1981 ~ Harold Urey (b. Apr. 29, 1893), American chemist and recipient of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 87.

1979 ~ Charles Mingus (b. Apr. 22, 1922), American bassist, composer and bandleader.  He died at age 56 of ALS.

1978 ~ Wyatt Emory Cooper (b. Sept. 1, 1927), American author and screenwriter.  He was married to Gloria Vanderbilt and was the father of Anderson Cooper.  He died at age 50 during heart surgery.

1970 ~ Max Born (b. Dec. 11, 1882), German physicist and mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died 25 days after his 87^th birthday.

1943 ~ George Washington Carver (b. 1864), African-American plant scientist best known for his research on peanuts.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 80 years old at the time of his death.

1942 ~ Tina Modotti (née Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini, b. Aug. 16, 1896), Italian photographer and model.  She was also a revolutionary political activist.  She died of heart failure in Mexico City at age 45.

1941 ~ Amy Johnson (b. July 1, 1903), English aviator.  She was an aviation pioneer and the first woman to fly alone from Britain to Australia.  She was a participant in the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II.  She was killed during a ferry flight at ate 37.  Her body was never recovered.

1939 ~ Amelia Earhart (b. July 24, 1897), American aviator.  The plane she was piloting went missing on July 2, 1937, 3 weeks before her 38^th birthday.  She was attempting to circumvent the earth when she lost communications and was never heard from again.  She was legally declared dead on January 5, 1939, at age 41.

1933 ~ Calvin Coolidge (b. July 4, 1872), 30^th President of the United States.  He was the 29^th Vice President of the United States and became President upon the death of President Warren G. Harding.  He served as President from August 1923 until March 1929.  He had previously served as the 48^th Governor of Massachusetts although he was born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.  He died at age 60.

1922 ~ Sir Ernest Shackleton (b. Feb. 15, 1874), Irish Antarctic explorer.  He died of a heart attack at age 47.

1905 ~ William Claflin (b. Mar. 6, 1818), 27^th Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1869 until January 1872.  He died at age 86.

1899 ~ Ezra Otis Kendall (b. May 17, 1818), American mathematician and professor.  He died at age 80.

1796 ~ Samuel Huntington (b. July 16, 1831), 18^th Governor of Connecticut.  His birthday under the Julian calendar is considered to be July 5.  He was Governor from May 1786 until January 1796.  He died in office at age 64

1762 ~ Elizabeth of Russia (b. Dec. 29, 1709).  She was Empress of Russia from December 1741.  She died 1 week after her 52^nd birthday.

1589 ~ Catherine de’Medici (b. Apr. 13, 1519), wife of Henry II of France.  She died at age 69.

1477 ~ Charles, Duke of Burgundy aka Charles the Bold (b. Nov. 10, 1433), was killed at the Battle of Nancy, thus Burgundy became a part of France.  He died at age 43.

1430 ~ Philippa of England, Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (b. June 4, 1394).  She died at age 35.  Her mother, Mary de Bohun died giving birth to Philippa.

1066 ~ Edward the Confessor (b. 1004), King of England.  He died childless, thus there was a succession crises upon his death, which ultimately set the stage for the Norman conquest of England.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 62 at the time of his death.